Video Conferencing Basics

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Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

This article will provide you a brief introduction about what actually video conferencing is. By video conferecing we can connect with some other identity and also can see the video online in real time. It is now useful and very interesting technology and widly used worldwide.

What is Video Conferencing: Video conferencing is the integration of video, audio and peripherals to enable two or more people to communicate simultaneously over some type of telecommunications lines. By video conferencing you are transmitting synchronized images and verbal communications between two or more locations in lieu of them being in the same room.

Video conferencing ingredients: The main ingredients of successful video conferencing are video cameras, microphones, appropriate computer software and computer equipment and peripherals that will integrate with the transmission lines to relay the information.

How video conferencing works: The analog information recorded by the microphones and cameras is broken down into discreet units, translating it to ones and zeros. A Codec encodes the information to a digital signal that can then be transmitted to a codec at the other end, which will retranslate these digital signals back into analog video images and audio sounds.

In the earlier days, video conferencing was very much expensive than today. Some time back video conferencing was used by T1, ATM and ISDN lines. These all process were very costly for video conferencing. Since internet is very cheap and it is a very good medium for video conferencing. The TCP/IP connections of the Internet are much less expensive and can carry large quantities of information for video conferencing, including video packets for conferencing, relatively easily. Because of this, video conferencing has become much more prevalent in small businesses and in desktop packages that can be set up with software for computer-to-computer networking.

The problem faced was in video conferencing was that when we convert analog to digital for transmission then it is the loss in clarity of image. The most important factor in video conferencing is the compression ratio. The higher the compression ratio, the more quickly the information is capable of being transmitted. In many cases, however, this also means some loss in clarity or audio/video quality.

Advantages of video conferencing: Using video conferencing you can communicate with whole groups of people at once either through networking a group of computers or by form of broadcast. This is a huge step forward for both companies and for schools. video conferencing is very useful for students in their studies. Students can enjoy learning this way much more than from a textbook. Informed people can talk to classes and help them learn, where otherwise they wouldn't be able to because of time and distance restrictions. This is also a bonus for children who have different learning styles. The more visual types who understand better when they can see what they're working with.

Author is an engineer and is running a website http://engineering-updates.com, you can reproduce this article if all the link are alive.

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more